The contribution of agriculture and forestry to climate protection - agriculture and forestry policy in Germany

For the vast majority of scientists there can be no serious doubt at the present rime that greenhouse gas emissions of human origin are overtaxing the adaptive potential of many ecosystems and exerting an adverse effect on economic and social systems, including food production, all over the world. Agriculture and forestry also form a significant global source of greenhouse gas emissions, although in Germany these are of secondary importance when compared to those arising from energy generation, industry, traffic and domestic households. Regional adaptation to climatic change appears to be possible, but on a global scale it will lead to a deterioration in the standard of living. The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, initiated a process aimed at reversing this trend. Agriculture and forestry are also being called upon to contribute to this. At national level, these efforts are embedded in a comprehensive programme for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In the agricultural sector, priority is being afforded to the exploitation and tapping of potentials for reducing laughing gas (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2), and in animal husbandry, to the possibility of reducing methane (CH4) and N2O. The employment of renewable raw materials in the form of biofuels, or for the generation of heat and electricity, creates a certain potential for reducing CO2. The binding of CO2 in woodlands and wood products (CO2 sinks) provides only temporary and small-scale relief. Against the background of the increasingly concrete contributions agriculture and forestry will be required to make to global climate protection in future, the necessity for research and development studies to examine possible contributions to every facet of this field will continue, also to continued assistance for political decision-making.